This week, dear listeners, we return with guest Duck Washington for a conversation about science gone wrong in movies! We discuss many of our favorite sci-fi films in terms of ethics, real-life dilemmas, and copious amounts of wine.

If you would like to drink along (and you very well might), we suggest either the classy Piattelli Vineyards Malbec or the ever-reliable Low Hanging Fruit Merlot Reserve.

Edited June 23rd, 2016 to add:

One of our fine Brians, Mr. Donohue, has created a lovely title card for this episode. Witness its kaijutastic glory!

4 comments

On a friend’s recommendation I’ve been working my way through Person of Interest (hooray for Netflix, boo for my inability to binge-watch more than three episodes at a time of ANY show before having to do ANY thing else), which is ostensibly a show about a rich weirdo and his ex-military hireling running around NYC saving people from bad circumstances…

…but is actually a stealth Sci-Fi show which delves into the ethics of A.I., how we might find ourselves interacting with such a sentience, and the good old-fashioned “you never stopped to think whether you SHOULD.” It’s not for everyone, it’s especially heavily reliant upon gunfire and other forms of violence, and it gets SO VERY man-pain-y from time to time. But when it peels back a layer or two and gets into the SF-nal bits, the show does a good job raising questions and showing what-might-be answers.

The original GITS movie really is a stand-out example of Japanese storytelling taking on questions of artificial consciousness and related topics. Arguably the best (and best-known) anime movie to go into the “bad science ethics” realm of “you did the thing because you could, never stopping to consider if you should”, though?

Two things: first, Trader Joe’s Bacon Jam. Put it in your stir-fry, put it on your eggs, put it on your toasted cheese sandwiches. Second, I made y’all a thing base on the opening of this episode, featuring Gojira tussling with Ebirah.http://s.mlkshk-cdn.com/r/18UDW